Doherty Urges Health Committee to Support PTSD Bill

On Thursday, the Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health to speak to Bill C-211, An Act respecting a federal framework on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which passed Second Reading in March.

Doherty called on members of the Committee to return the Bill to the House of Commons with their unanimous support.

“I introduced Bill C-211 to establish a cohesive and coherent national framework to ensure our military, first responders, paramedics, police personnel, veterans and correctional officers get timely access to the resources they need to deal with PTSD,” he said.

“Let’s choose to give back in a small way that we are able to, by ensuring that our protectors have the opportunity to receive a basic standard of treatment to deal with their PTSD. For too long, we have left our veterans, our first responders and our military behind.”

So, where do things go from here?

“The committee now studies the bill and will hold another meeting where they’ll bring in some witnesses that will speak to the importance of the bill as well,” says Doherty.

“And then the committee will make the decision on whether it dies at committee or that it gets referred back to House for Third Reading. If it’s successful it goes to the Senate.”